Even as we have “tamed” the wilderness, we SEEK new ways of experiencing danger outside. In our Nash reading this week, we learned about Joseph Knowles who ventured naked and alone into the wilderness in Maine to show that risk and hardiness were still possible in a civilized America. He was quite likely faking, but his fame showed his story’s appeal to Americans longing to believe that the hardiness of the pioneer was still alive even after the closing of the frontier. This little little essay and YouTube video show ways that human beings courted danger in the past and today.
Click here to read the full talk:
https://www.americanrealities.com/home-page/danger-in-the-national-parks